This invention relates generally to the field of image recognition and processing and specifically to methods and systems for identifying, diagnosing, and treating people based on thermal minutiae within a person's body, primarily the face.
Improved methods for automated access control and surveillance are vital to ensure the continued security of nuclear weapon storage facilities, as well as other sensitive or valuable items. Potential threats range from terrorist bombings, insider thefts, and industrial espionage to sabotage by environmental activists. There is concern for increased vigilance in the protection of critical strategic assets.
Current technology being used for access control is not sufficient reliable, secure, fast rugged or cost effective for routine unattended operations at high-security locations. The challenge is to develop systems to secure facilities and personnel from internal and external threats in a cost effective and timely manner. Replacing human guards with automated systems can provide a significant cost savings.
The requirement to positively identify each individual seeking access to a facility or to information or services is widespread. Manpower-intensive guard brigades are deployed at public functions to protect celebrities, and at locations where valuable or important items are stored. Guards are used to screen entrants based upon recognizing either the person or some credential he carries. Identification credentials such as photo ID badges and driver's licenses are widely used for manual identification when cashing checks or using credit cards. Manual checking of such identification cards may not recognize cases where the card is forgery or where the person using it is not the rightful owner of the card. To assist in solving that problem, more sophisticated identifying characteristics may be used on the card, and features may be added to make the card more difficult to counterfeit. The use of biometric characteristics such as fingerprints, signatures, visual descriptions, or photographs is becoming more common. Such information can either be readable manually or encoded for reading by an automated system.
When the identification system is fully automated, without a human attendant, biometric sensors at the access location can compare the characteristics of a person at the location with the stored characteristics of the person he is claiming to be. When initially issuing permission for a person to access a biometrically-controlled system or location, his biometric characteristics are recorded in the system memory, and also recorded on an identification card, for later comparison by the system controller with his live characteristics.